10 with ties to Utah set for NBA Summer League play

Ten basketball players with ties to the state of Utah are participating in this year's NBA Summer League play in Las Vegas and Orlando.

They include an ex-Jazzman, eight former in-state college stars and a center from Utah County.

The Utah Jazz will be sending their own team to Vegas, with rookies Dante Exum and Rodney Hood and second-year point guard Trey Burke highlighting the group.

A pair of players with Utah ties, Justin Hamilton and Michael Stockton, played in the Orlando Summer League, which wraps up Thursday. Hamilton and eight others will take part in Las Vegas Summer League play, which runs from Friday through July 21.

Here's a look at the 10, two of whom will be playing for the Jazz, who provide viewers from the Beehive State other reasons to tune in.

The rookie Berry will be trying to make an impression with Portland where another former Wildcat, Damian Lilliard, is a star point guard. Berry spent two seasons at Weber State, earning All-Big Sky Conference first-team honors both years.

The 2013-14 Big Sky MVP averaged 19.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game as a senior. He scored 24 points in the Wildcats' NCAA tournament loss to Arizona and led the West team with 15 points and four assists in the Reese's College All-Star Game in April.

Brown has been several places since playing for the Utes from 2007-10. He transferred to Colorado for his final college season, then signed as a free agent with the Golden State Warriors in September 2012. After being waived by the Warriors, Brown played for a pair of teams, Santa Cruz and Idaho, in the NBA Development League in 2012-13.

Clyburn, a junior college transfer, spent one season with the Utes in 2010-11. He transferred to Iowa State for his final college year in 2012-13, where he earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors and was named to the all-Big 12 second team while averaging 14.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists.

Covington spent one season with Weber State in 2005-06, when he averaged 6.4 points, 2.6 assists and 2.0 rebounds per game. The past three years, he has bounced around the NBA D-League, playing most recently for the Erie Bayhawks.

Covington, who signed a non-guaranteed contract with the Jazz heading into training camp last season, had his best year in the D-League in 2012-13. That year, he played 47 games for Erie and averaged 9.4 points, 2.9 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game.

Davies played in 51 games for the Philadelphia 76ers last year as a rookie after going undrafted. This followed a four-year career at BYU where the 6-foot-10 forward averaged 12.4 points and 6.2 rebounds as a Cougar and was twice named first team all-West Coast Conference.

Fesenko, once a second-round NBA draft pick of Philadelphia's who joined Utah via trade, has moved around since his days with the Jazz from 2007-11. His best season in Utah came in 2009-10, when Fesenko started five games, played in 49 and averaged 2.6 points and 1.8 rebounds per game.

Since his time in Utah, though, Fesenko has played just three games in the NBA, all with Indiana in the 2011-12 season. In May 2013, he joined Ukrainian team BC Donetsk, according to Sportnado. Fesenko returned to the United States in 2014, playing for Delaware and most recently Canton in the D-League; in 25 games in the league, he averaged 9.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.

Hamilton already has played four games for the Heat during the Orlando tournament and will join Miami in the Las Vegas Summer League. In four starts in Orlando, he averaged 12 points and a team-leading 6.75 rebounds per game and scored in double figures in three games.

His best outing came in a 110-91 victory over Brooklyn on Sunday, when he scored 15 points and added nine rebounds, an assist and a blocked shot in almost 25 minutes of game action.

Hamilton played in both the NBA and D-League last season, most recently for the Heat after signing with the team in March. He averaged 3.3 points and 0.9 rebounds in eight games with Miami and averaged 19.3 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.03 blocks and 1.5 assists with Sioux Falls of the D-League.

Shaw wrapped up his two-year career at Utah State last season after transferring from Oklahoma State. He earned honorable mention all-MWC honors in 2013-14 after being named second team all-WAC his junior year. He averaged 14.1 points and 8.3 rebounds his senior season.

Shaw joins Weber State's Berry as one of two rookies from Utah to participate in the NBA Summer League.

Stockton competed with the Thunder in the Orlando Summer League over the past week, playing in two games. On Monday in a 98-84 win over the Brooklyn Nets, he scored seven points and had five assists in nearly 18 minutes of game time. He finished the Orlando tournament averaging 13 minutes, 4.5 points, 3.5 assists and one rebound.

The center who averaged 11.9 points and 6.8 rebounds his senior year at Utah has played in the pros the past season in Belarus and Ukraine. According to Sportnado, Washburn left the Chernasy Monkeys in February and was averaging 14.1 points and 6.3 rebounds with the team.